Here is the St. Petersburg video!
Before Arno headed to serve in the military we celebrated our (his) last weekend of freedom. And how do we celebrate? By sitting home spooning and watching TV? Sometimes.. But usually by travelling of course. Tho we had no idea where we'd go. And also quite late with all the planing. I mean Arno had just gotten back from Dubai and Belgium a few days ago and I was working full time, so no flight booking time what-so-ever. We had a weekend (two and half days) to spare and not too much money. Arno suggested Lithuania and Latvia but by that time all the people with their summer vacation plans had ran us over in the battle for cheap and straight flights. So no. And we had just been in Estonia a few weeks back on a payed day trip (thank you Arno's friends!) so that wasn't really an option either.
Earlier that year I had been asking my parents and grandma to come with me to St. Petersburg once again like we did during my first year in high school (*feeling old*) but we hadn't found the time. So I came up with the idea again. Arno wasn't super excited of a cruise. I on the other hand have been almost born on board since my mom used to work for Silja Line, we have been on Caribbean cruises and our cousins live across the ocean in Germany. Luckily I got him to swallow my idea by Wednesday and he called us a cabin. So on Friday we picked our bags and headed to the harbor. It sounds easy but actually I was moving with the power of tea, throat drops and cookies since I had woke up feeling a little sick. But it is amazing what sea breeze can do to you (other than mess up your hair).
The ship wasn't super populated at all but it took forever to get in. The funny thing is that the St. Petersline ship was full of foreigners around their 40s and 50s - Germans, Asians, Russians... - when the ships sailing in between Helsinki-Stockholm and Helsinki-Tallinn are full of drunken Finns and families with little kids. It was quite a pleasant surprise actually. We didn't hear any Finnish and it felt like being abroad already.
We headed on deck to see the departure. It was beautiful. And I was wearing a short-ish dress. And it was windy as always on ships (I sure should've remembered after working on one for half a year).. What a combo.. We ended up tying the hem in between my legs and me looking super weirdo.. And got cold and hungry pretty fast too.. Luckily the restaurants were much cheaper than we expected. Actually much cheaper than back in Helsinki. So we were happy to not have eaten a subway or so before departing and sat ourselves in this Japanese-Italian restaurant. I dared Arno to try sushi - he had never had anything but some buffet crap and me myself love love loooove sushi! So we ordered a plate for two. And Arno liked it! A lot! So we got through it pretty fast. And for a main course got some pasta and risotto from the Italian menu, yummy! And then we were so happily stuffed that we decided to leave the restaurant before exploding. We found a machine where you can try to grab a stuffed Minion, put in like 5 euros and did not get that damn thing! So we went to try on some expensive sunglasses and perfumes and bought some treats. Then we just hang out in the cabin before hitting the hay.
We had this glorious plan about waking up early and heading to the harbor right when the ship hits it. But as all glorious plans do, this one failed as well. When we had snoozed 20 minutes longer than we were supposed we finally got up and started to hide our inner zombiness in front of the mirror. So tired, hah! But after 30 minutes of trying hard to wake up we just decided to get out of the cabin and leave the ship with my little bag, passports, phones, wallets and camera. And we were not late at all. They started taking people in the gates after some time so we would have had to wait anyways. And when we finally got in, there was a bus waiting to take us to the center city.
After 10-15 minutes drive we were let out by a church. The morning was still early and air fresh. And the weather was awesome, so sunny! I was loving it! But also hungry as we both are when we don't eat breakfast. So the first thing after all my necessary first pictures was to find a breakfast place. And we randomly bumped into a super good one. With huge windows open to the street, few tables outside and the smell of fresh bread this cute little Bonch Cafe on the corner was our place. We sat down. Arno ordered fresh squeezed orange juice (surprise), a raspberry muffin and two sandwiches. I got a caramel late, croissant and English muffins topped with salmon and egg benedicts. So good! And so cheap!
So we headed downtown to see something. No plans made ahead, just free roaming, We got ourselves to the winter palace and from there walked to the big church with the onion towers. Behind that church was a market we walked around talking about cats with one guy running a stand. Didn't buy the weird fluffy hats we tried on.
We walked through this park next to the church, bought some caramelized almonds and saw this hippie dude with his pug dressed in a sombrero, singing and playing ukulele. From there we headed through the little streets, parks and over bridges to where ever we felt like. Talking, zipping caramel late from a coffee car and enjoying the sun. We saw this island on the other side and decided to drop by. There were beautiful ships and little houses. Loved it. We even found ourselves a ship to have late lunch on! So nice to hide a moment from the burning sun and rest our feet. And such a beautiful restaurant. I ordered a homemade lemonade and fish. Arno got some breaded chicken thing.
Afterwards we started slowly walking towards the place the bus would pick us up from. But got there too early so had a little dessert break in a cafeteria by a park, no one spoke English but the desserts were waaayyy too good! And just what we needed to survive back to the ship before ordering tons of sushi for ourselves! And now I am happy to say that I have a man who likes sushi!
So that was Saint Peterburg in nutshell. Such a beautiful city, fell in love with it all over again! Don't be too judgemental, go check it out! We both were so happy with the cruise and totally gonna go again! And the post was late, yes.. I have been overly busy, but got the video done somewhere in the middle of all of this. Also happy to tell you that I will have some good news coming soon so stay tuned!
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